No advantage for remembering horizontal over vertical spatial locations learned from a single viewpoint

Previous behavioral and neurophysiological research has shown better memory for horizontal than for vertical locations. In these studies, participants navigated toward these locations. In the present study we investigated whether the orientation of the spatial plane per se was responsible for this difference. We thus had participants learn locations visually from a single perspective and retrieve them from multiple viewpoints. In three experiments, participants studied colored tags on a horizontally or vertically oriented board within a virtual room and recalled these locations with different layout orientations (Exp. 1) or from different room-based perspectives (Exps. 2 and 3). All experiments revealed evidence for equal recall performance in horizontal and vertical memory. In addition, the patterns for recall from different test orientations were rather similar. Consequently, our results suggest that memory is qualitatively similar for both vertical and horizontal two-dimensional locations, given that these locations are learned from a single viewpoint. Thus, prior differences in spatial memory may have originated from the structure of the space or the fact that participants navigated through it. Additionally, the strong performance advantages for perspective shifts (Exps. 2 and 3) relative to layout rotations (Exp. 1) suggest that configurational judgments are not only based on memory of the relations between target objects, but also encompass the relations between target objects and the surrounding room—for example, in the form of a memorized view.     

Controllability and hindsight components: Understanding opposite hindsight biases for self-relevant negative event outcomes

There is an anomaly in the hindsight bias literature with respect to hindsight effects obtained after self-relevant negative event outcomes: Whereas some studies have reported reduced hindsight bias, others have shown increases. This article contrasts two explanations for the anomaly. The first points to an influence of perceived control over the event outcome: In hindsight, people decrease foreseeability (and hence, responsibility and blame) for controllable events, but they increase the perceived inevitability of uncontrollable events for coping reasons. The second explanation, derived from a reconception of hindsight bias in terms of separate components (Blank, Nestler, von Collani, & Fischer, 2008), traces the anomaly to differences in the observed hindsight components: Hindsight decreases are to be expected for foreseeability, whereas increases are restricted to the inevitability component. Our experiment (N=210) manipulated controllability and the hindsight component orthogonally and showed strong support for the component explanation, but also some influence of perceived control.     

On a Possible Use of the Root Nodules of Leguminous Plants for Research in Neurology and Psychiatry (Preliminary Report on a Free Porphyrin-Hemoglobin System)

The study was designed to examine the trait attribution process of American female college students to male stimulus targets differing in hair length and to explore the relationship between differences in preferences for hair length and differences in S characteristics of the perceiver. In a between Ss design, groups of females (N = 90) rated male stimulus targets of various hair lengths on a number of personalogical and physical dimensions. Short-haired male targets were perceived more favorably and as resembling more the male stereotype than long-haired male targets. Females' relative preference for hair length styles were correlated with their responses to a personality questionnaire, a sexual experience inventory, and a background information questionnaire. The profiles of females who preferred short-haired males could be described as conservative in orientation, while the profiles of females who preferred long-haired males could be described as liberal in orientation. An implication of this study is that impressions and preferences for another individual are a function not only of the characteristics of the person being observed but also to some extent a function of the characteristics of the observer.     

Psychoanalyse und Verbrechen

Foulkes’ paper on “Psycho-Analysis and Crime” was first published in 1943. Today, only parts of this paper are published in the Selected Papers (1990). Foulkes’ paper is part of the tradition of psychoanalytic work and psychoanalytically inspired social research in delinquent behaviour. The paper is of special interest for the development of Foulkes’ works as it seems to mark the transition from a Freudian psychoanalyst to the founder of Group Analysis.     

Aggression in the Laboratory: Problems with the Validity of the Modified Taylor Competitive Reaction Time Test as a Measure of Aggression in Media Violence Studies

Many laboratory studies of aggression use a measure known as the modified Taylor Competitive Reaction Time Test (TCRTT), for which validation studies are lacking. Using sound blasts administered by the participant against a fictional human opponent, the TCRTT also allows for multiple methods of measuring aggression. The validity of the TCRTT was tested in 53 college student participants. Participants took a self-report measure of aggressiveness as well as neuropsychological measures of frontal lobe functioning predictive of aggression. Results were not supportive of the TCRTT's validity and indicated concerns regarding the use of the TCRTT as a measure of aggression. Results suggest that labaratory studies of media violence using the TCRTT are of questionable validity.     

The attentional blink is susceptible to concurrent perceptual processing demands

In a rapid serial visual presentation stream processing of a first target (T1) impairs detection or identification of a second target (T2) that appears within 500 ms after T1. This effect characterizes the so-called attentional blink (AB). To evaluate contemporary information-processing accounts of the AB phenomenon in terms of the underlying processing mechanisms the present study examined the potential influence of Task 1 difficulty on the AB effect. To this end, T1 contrast and T1 response requirements were systematically varied across four experiments. Experiment 1 ruled out a mere sensory basis of the contrast manipulation on T2 performance. When only T2 had to be reported (Experiment 2) an AB effect occurred that was slightly modulated by T1 contrast. When report of both T1 and T2 was required in a standard AB task (Experiment 3), the magnitude of the AB depended to a larger extent on stimulus contrast, and it increased further when speeded T1 choice responses were additionally required (Experiment 4). On the basis of the present impact of Task 1 difficulty on the AB effect we conclude that processing limitations cause the AB phenomenon. We discuss such limitations in terms of perceptual (T1 consolidation) and central (response selection) bottleneck processes.     

From Information‐Seeking Behavior to Meaning Engagement Practice.

We invite readers of this colloquy on information‐seeking behavior to reconsider the worldview that structures scholarly and practical thinking about information‐seeking behavior as a mode of human activity. We propose an alternative formulation–meaning engagement practice–to draw into relief the assumptions that tacitly underpin the investigation of information‐seeking behavior. We develop this alternative by contrasting information with meaning, seeking with engagement, and behavior with practice. By rethinking information‐seeking behavior through the lens of meaning engagement practice, avenues for theoretical development and systematic investigation of communication more generally are recovered. We ground our case for meaning engagement practice in four research contexts: modeling the user in information mediation, information access and browsing as relevant processes for understanding information‐seeking behavior, the products and by‐products of an information‐seeking behavior worldview in psychiatric evaluation, and approaches to the design of mediation practices that encourage reflection.     

Aktuelle Entwicklung in der Transaktionsanalyse

Zusammenfassung Die Transaktionsanalyse (Berne 1958) sollte vom ursprünglichen Konzept her dazu dienen, personale Strukturen und psychodynamische Prozesse auch dem Laien verstehbar und nutzbar zu machen. Obwohl dieser Anspruch bei manchen Autoren zu Oberfl?chlichkeit und „happy-go-lucky” Sicht verw?sserte, zeigt die vor allem unter europ?ischen Transaktionsanalytikern übliche Rückbesinnung auf die ursprünglichen Inhalte den Umfang klinischer Relevanz der Konzepte für Verst?ndnis und Behandlung der verschiedensten St?rungen. Dies anhand einer sog. frühen St?rung, dem Borderlinesyndrom, aufzuzeigen, ist Anliegen des vorliegenden Beitrags. Das Strukturmodell der Ich-Zust?nde dient dabei als Beschreibungsansatz für die Borderlinestruktur, Bezugsrahmen und Skript als Muster für die Entstehung und Aufrechterhaltung der Pathologie, Transaktionen, Spiele, Symbiosen und Passivit?t als Merkmale stabiler Instabilit?t der Beziehungen und Abwertungen und Grandiosit?ten als Beispiele für Abwehrmuster. Es folgen praxisorientierte überlegungen und Hinweise zum therapeutischen Vertrag als Grundlage des Arbeitsbündnisses, zu Methoden der Ent?ngstigung im Therapieproze?, zu Begegnung und Beziehung als Substrat für korrigierende Erfahrungen, heilendes Klima und Entdramatisierung des realen Geschehens. Die Ausführungen enden mit transaktionsanalytischen überlegungen zu übertragung, Gegenübertragung und dem Umgang mit Regressionsprozessen.